By J. Wylie Donald and Stephanie Platzman-Diamant, Attorneys, McCarter & English LLP
J. Wylie Donald and Stephanie Platzman-Diamant wrote a recent commentary discussing “greenwashing” . They wrote that p urveyors of goods and services seek to cash in on the wave of environmental consciousness...

Randy J. Maniloff, White and Williams, LLP
For the past ten years I have had the privilege of publishing an end-of-year article in Mealey’s Litigation Report: Insurance that discusses the ten most significant insurance coverage decisions from the year gone by. Like anything that is done for...

In a previous post I
wrote about a consumer class action against SC Johnson, accusing the
producer of Windex of misleading consumers by using a GREENLIST label
that allegedly implies objective third party certification of
environmentally friendly ingredients in its cleaning products.
Ayana...

An interesting piece on FoodProductionDaily.com reports on a recent decision involving greenwashing (and apparently reverse greenwashing) claims in Denmark.
The ruling by the Danish Maritime Court is the culmination of a dispute that began in 2008 after Empac , a European metal packaging industry...

Incidents of greenwashing continue apace, increasingly in the realm of what I call Greenwashing 2.0 , i.e., misrepresentations in business dealings relating to commercial clean tech equipment and services as opposed to marketing consumer products.
A Colorado company called Executive Recycling, Inc...

A previous post discussed an action brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Lights of America (LOA), charging the California LED lamp maker of violating the FTC Act by making false or unsubstantiated advertising claims about its products.
In a recent decision , a Los Angeles federal...

I’m pleased to announce that my article – Greenwashing 2.0 - was published at the end of September in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law (CJEL). The current issue of CJEL can be found here .
In this piece, I argue that discussions of greenwashing are unduly restricted to cases in...

A previous post discussed a recent court decision giving the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a big win and holding that Lights of America (LOA) violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by making false claims about LED lamps replacing certain wattage incandescent lamps and about the lifetime of the company’s...

A previous post discussed a recent court decision giving the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a big win and holding that Lights of America (LOA) violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by making false claims about LED lamps replacing certain wattage incandescent lamps and about the lifetime of the company’s...

I’ve written before about the important role of certification marks in green branding, and a recent California district court decision involving the Energy Star certification highlights their continued significance.
The Energy Star program seeks to aid investment in energy efficient products...

By William A. Ruskin
Law 360 reported recently that that the FTC is taking decisive action against companies that make deceptive environmental marketing claims. “Greenwashing” involves misleading consumers concerning the environmental benefits of a product or service. In an earlier article...

Before we turn to new green IP issues as they unfold in 2014, here is a look back at some of the top stories from 2013.
No. 7: Green Patent PR
Clean tech is competitive, and PR is one of the tools used to stand out in a competitive industry. But who would have thought PR around green patents could...

A piece published this week on Green Car Reports starts this way:
No one wants to buy a brand-new car, only to find out that its real-world fuel economy doesn’t match the numbers on the window sticker.
It struck me that this statement describes the plaintiffs in a number of greenwashing lawsuits...

In previous posts (e.g., here and here ), I’ve discussed cases of fraudulent renewable energy credits and other environmental crimes and argued they ought to be considered greenwashing.
A recent indictment is another case in point. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that...

By George M. Nicholos , Associate, Vandeventer Black LLP
U.S. Green Building Council Inc., (USGBC) recently rolled out LEED version 4 (LEED v4) of the Leadership and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system. LEED v4 was originally referred to as LEED 2012, but delays during the public...

A recent article in the New York Law Journal caught my attention for an interesting development in examination of eco-mark applications in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). We’ve known for some time that marks containing terms such as “green,” “clean,” “eco...

A previous post discussed a host of class action lawsuits against Kia and/or Hyundai accusing the Korean automakers of making false or misleading fuel efficiency claims in their advertising and marketing materials.
Those suits allege that the automakers built advertising campaigns around representations...

In a recent lawsuit, a Ford Fusion owner has accused the automaker of misrepresenting the fuel efficiency of the hybrid vehicle and distributing a software update that displays false mileage figures.
In the proposed class action complaint filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, named plaintiff...

A previous post discussed a federal indictment of an individual for allegedly selling fraudulent renewable identification numbers (RINs).
The indictment alleged that an individual using the name Philip Joseph Rivkin controlled and operated Green Diesel LLC and claimed that the company produced millions...

It was just a few months ago that a blog post reported a criminal defendant pleaded guilty to selling fraudulent renewable identification numbers (RINs).
It has happened again, with recent prison sentences for four individuals in Florida who also pleaded guilty to charges related to a scheme involving...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), America’s consumer watchdog agency, has historically been ahead of the curve on greenwashing.
In 1992, it first published its Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims , commonly know as the Green Guides, which provide a framework for green marketers...

By now the Volkswagen emissions scandal has been widely reported and analyzed, and the consequences the German carmaker will face for using software to cheat on emissions tests will be determined, at least in part, by a mass of lawyers .
What interests me is how Volkswagen’s actions fit into...